


the summertime and butterflies

by paladinscleric (Tschulifee)



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: M/M, Mike is a Dramatic Bicon, Pining, oblivious boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 04:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12926967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tschulifee/pseuds/paladinscleric
Summary: He has faced multiple demogorgons, made it out of the Upside Down alive, is going to school every day even though his history teacher is pure evil. Putting sunscreen on his best friend’s back? Easy. He can totally do this.Or: The party goes on a day trip to a lake and Mike is way too in love with his best friend.





	the summertime and butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> In my head this is happening a few years after the happenings of season 2, so they are about 15/16. 
> 
> I yelled romcom ideas at Mishi (bc she is planning to bless us with one next year) and I liked this concept so much that I decided to write it myself.  
> It was a long and difficult birth but now it's finally here and I hope you all will enjoy reading it! 
> 
>  
> 
> "the summertime and butterflies  
> all belong to your creation  
> i love you, it's all i do, i love you." 
> 
> (Olivia - One Direction)

“Race you to the lake, Lucas!" Dustin shouts and pushes his feet harder into the pedals of his bike. Lucas speeds after him, "You had a head start, you cheater!"

  
They are on their way to the lake that's a few miles outside of Hawkins. The boys on their bikes, the girls on their skateboards. Max taught El to skate last year and they’ve become practically inseparable since then.

  
It's the middle of summer and even though it's only 10am Mike can feel the heat creeping its way across the dry cornfields they are racing past. His shirt is already sticking to his back, his fingers slippery on the handlebars. The sun is still gentle, however. Caresses their skin, welcomes them to a new day. Mike tries to soak it in as much as he can. It will be relentless later. Burning down with a severe intensity that every movement should be well considered. Even the birds will be silent, almost no cars passing along the roads, the air flickering above the asphalt.  

  
"I think Lucas is gonna win, even though Dustin had a head start."

  
Mike is pulled out of his thoughts by Will’s assessment. He looks over at the boy cycling right next to him who shoots him a quick grin in return and raises his eyebrows, “You up for a challenge, too, Wheeler?”

  
Mike can almost feel his heart jumping against his ribcage, fucking traitor. No, he does not want to have a race on this beautiful summer morning that’s getting warmer by the minute. He’s already sweating through his shirt as it is, thank you very much. And riding alongside Will in silence was nice. Actually more than nice but he shouldn’t allow himself to think too long about that. His heart is already getting out of control.

  
“Mike? Hello?” Will looks at him confused, a concerned frown crinkling his forehead, “We don’t have to race, I just thought you might-”

  
“No, no, it’s fine. Sorry, I don’t know where my mind is today. Okay, come on, let’s go. On three, yeah?”

  
Will smiles, frown gone, and starts counting, “One … two … THREE!”

  
And off they go, racing past the girls on their skateboards, wind blowing through their hair, calves burning from trying to pedal even faster.

  
A grin from Will Byers and Mike is ready to do whatever he wants him to do. He might have a problem.

 

 

Lucas and Will win the races. When El and Max arrive at the lake, the boys already spreading out their towels, El walks over to Mike with narrowed eyes, grabs his arm and pulls him a few feet away from the others.

  
“You let him win.”

  
“No? What? No, I didn’t!” He protests.

  
El just quirks an eyebrow at him. She is really spending too much time with Max.    
Mike quickly looks over at Will to see if he’s aware of their exchange but the other boy is laughing at something Dustin is talking about, not even glancing in their direction.

  
“Well.. maybe I did. But so what?”

  
El studies him with an intense gaze. “Are you not lying to him when you do that? Because friends don’t-”

  
“Lie. Yeah, I know. I taught you that! But you know, sometimes… sometimes it’s okay if you kind of lie … when it doesn’t hurt anyone. And when it can make someone else happy.”

  
“So Will would have been sad if he lost? He always loses when he races against Lucas and I think it’s okay for him.”

  
Mike can feel a blush slowly colouring his cheeks, “Well, maybe he wouldn’t have been _sad_ but I’m sure he is happier this way. Plus I wanted him to win, so it’s all totally fine. Why are you making such a fuss about this?”

  
“Oooh, someone’s touchy today.” Max’ voice rings out from behind him and he jerks, turning around to face her. She’s giving him one of her annoying all-knowing grins, eyebrows raised. Honestly, she should get that trademarked.

  
“I am not touchy!” His voice sounds kind of shrill and Max’ smirk only deepens. “God, you two are so annoying today, can you please just leave me alone for a minute. I haven’t even taken off my clothes yet and we are at the lake! Where we are supposed to swim!”

  
Max holds up both of her hands in a placating gesture, “Okay. We’ll leave you alone. Go take off your clothes, Wheeler, I’m sure _someone_ here will appreciate it.”

  
And after shooting him another big grin, she turns to face El and asks, “Wanna lay down our towels and then hop into the water? We don’t have to go very far in, just where we can still stand, yeah?”

  
El nods relieved and together they leave Mike standing next to his towel, mouth hanging open, cheeks flaming red.

 

  
He turns around to Will who has sat down on his towel that is right next to Mike’s, luckily still talking to Dustin and Lucas about their sleep-over plans for the weekend and not aware of Mike’s humiliation.

  
He quickly pulls his shirt over his head and steps out of his shorts, already wearing his swimming trunks underneath, and sits down next to his best friend.

  
Lucas catches his gaze, “Hey Mike. Did you ask your parents if they’re okay with the sleep-over on Saturday?”

  
He nods, “Yeah, yeah I did. They are fine with it.”

  
“Awesome!”, Dustin grins, “You know I love the girls but I’m excited we can have a boys’ night again. Like old times!”

  
Lucas scoffs, “ ‘Like old times’. That sounds like we are 40 or something!”

  
“No, it doesn’t! Old times just means that it hasn’t happened _recently,_ you idiot!”

  
Before Lucas can fire back, Will holds up a white bottle and asks, “Guys, could someone please put sunscreen on my back? I already did everywhere else but I really don’t want to risk burning my back.”

  
Mike’s heart speeds up. He is definitely not equipped to handle smearing sunscreen on Will, so he looks over at the other two boys with pleading eyes. Hoping to somehow telepathically convey that he needs an act of solidarity from them right fucking now.

  
“Will, you know I’d totally do that but I think the girls actually just called for Lucas and me, so I guess we have to join them in the lake before they get irritated.” Dustin says while scrambling up from his seating position. The girls had definitely not shouted their names. Mike narrows his eyes at him.  
Lucas stands up as well, grinning, “But I’m sure Mike will be happy to do it”, and together they start running towards the lake, laughing.  
Mike is going to kill them. Who needs friends? He doesn’t. Not if they are as cruel as his ones.

  
 

“Uhm…” When Mike looks over at Will the other boy is still staring at Lucas and Dustin’s retreating backs with a confused expression and then turns his gaze on Mike, “Would you mind? Y-you don’t have to, if - if you don’t want to do it. I can just stay in the - in the shade and be careful or I cou-”

  
Will’s stammering makes Mike even more nervous than he already is, so he decides to free them both from the awkwardness, “No, it’s fine. It’s fine, Will! Really. I can do it.”

  
He _can_ do it. He has faced multiple demogorgons, made it out of the Upside Down alive, is going to school every day even though his history teacher is pure evil. Putting sunscreen on his best friend’s back? Easy. He can totally do this.  
Will shoots him a relieved smile and softly says “Thanks, Mike” before turning around.

  
Mike grabs the bottle that Will left lying between their towels and squeezes a generous amount of lotion onto his hand. He takes a deep breath to calm himself down and looks up. Will’s back is right in front of him. Shoulder blades jutting out, looking sharp, the upper knobs of his spine visible under winter-white skin.

  
Mike places his left hand right under Will’s neck and slowly slides it down his spine, spreading the lotion on the way. He can hear Will exhale shakily, probably because the sunscreen feels cold against his skin that is still warmed up from the bike race earlier. His heart is picking up pace again as he lays both of his hands on the middle of Will’s back and spreads them out towards his sides, fingertips brushing his shoulder blades. He does the same on his lower and upper back, painting Will’s soft skin an even brighter shade of white.

  
The blood is rushing in his ears, his heart is pounding and pounding and pounding and when his right hand carefully smears lotion onto the delicate slope of Will’s neck it feels as if it might burst right through his chest. His stomach is filled to the brim with nervous, excited energy and he thinks he will never be able to eat again, he feels way too full.

  
Why do people say falling in love is easy and fun? Mike feels as if he’s going to faint any second, now. Or maybe he will just throw up. All this tension building up inside of him starts to make his hands shake and he presses them more firmly onto Will’s back, working the lotion into his skin, hoping his best friend doesn’t notice the trembling in his fingers.

  
This is probably the closest he has ever been to Will and his brain won’t stop shutting up about it. Cataloguing everything he sees and feels. Will’s soft skin, now sticky because of the sunscreen, his ribs and the knobs of his spine feeling fragile under the thin skin, the muscles in his neck jumping every now and then, shoulders rising and falling with every inhale and exhale, his hair looking so so soft.

   
Mike wants to kiss every bit of skin he sees. He knows Will is still not comfortable with his body. Knows that he sees it as tainted ever since the Mind Flayer used it, as something that killed people. And he will never be able to scrub that all off. Mike noticed big long scratches on his arms but he knew Will didn’t like to talk about it, didn’t want other people to worry more about him than they already did. Over the last year the scratches have become less and less but Will’s shoulders are still hunched, head often times facing the ground, to make himself as small as possible, to not get noticed or at least to not notice other people’s stares.

  
Mike wants to grab him and shout “You didn’t kill anyone! You were so brave, you saved us! And you are so beautiful. There’s not a single thing wrong with you or your body.” He wants to press kisses all over his skin to show him that Mike isn’t disgusted with his body, that he instead is so grateful for it because it belongs to his best friend, his favourite person in the world. He wishes Will could understand that every brush of his fingertips says “I’m here for you. You will always be wonderful to me.” He wishes he could kiss him and let his lips soak in every whispered “You are the strongest person I know.”

  
  


“M-mike?”

  
Will’s quiet voice is travelling through the fog of his thoughts, “Huh?”

  
“I- I think the sunscreen is all gone now, isn’t it?”

  
“Oh”, Mike immediately lets his hands drop down in his lap, only now realising that he must have zoned out while keeping on massaging the lotion into Will’s skin. He can feel a warm flush making its way up his neck and to his cheeks,”Oh yeah, right. Right. It’s all gone. Yeah.. well.. there you go.”

  
Will turns around, a soft smile around his lips, “Thanks, Mike. Uhm-” he blushes as well and drops his gaze to the ground, “Should I … do your back, too?”

  
Mike is going to die. He will not be able to kill his friends because he will be dead before even attempting anything. If he values his life even a little bit he should decline and join the others in the lake.  
“O-okay, if you want to then... yeah, that’d be cool.”

  
Apparently his mouth and brain do not cooperate anymore. He has one foot in the grave already -

  
“Cool, could you … uhm…  turn around maybe?” Will gnaws on his lower lip nervously.

  
\- the rest of him will soon follow.  
 

 

He shoots Will a quick smile and then turns his back to him.  
His heart is racing, whole body tingling with anticipation.

  
There’s a quiet rustling sound, Will sliding over their towels to come up behind him, and his breath ghosts over Mike’s neck.  
Mike feels dizzy. The tingling in his body won’t stop, his stomach is in knots, he feels as if he could vibrate right out of his skin. He is so dizzy dizzy dizzy, he can hear no sound except the blood rushing through his ears. Maybe he should lie down for a bit.

  
Suddenly there’s a hand on his shoulder.  
He gasps, startled, and only then realises how much he needed that lungful of air.

  
“Mike? Mike?! Mike, are you okay?!”

  
Will’s voice reaches him, first muffled, then clearer and clearer.  
He shakes his head, trying to get rid of the leftover dizziness, and puts his hand on top of Will’s that’s still grabbing his shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze, “Yeah, I’m okay. I’m okay, Will. Sorry for worrying you.”

  
“Are you sure? You just.. stopped breathing for a bit and didn’t respond. It was really scary.”

  
Mike turns around just enough so he can look Will in the eyes, the other boy still looking way too worried.  
“Will, I’m okay. Really. I just felt dizzy for a bit there. But I’m fine now. Promise!”

  
His best friend is looking at him skeptically, eyes flitting over his face as if to check that Mike isn’t lying.

  
“Oh my God, Will! Stop worrying, please, and just put some damn sunscreen on my back!”

  
Will sighs long-sufferingly but doesn’t argue further, “Alright then, Mr. Wheeler. Please face forward so you can get Byers’ Skin Protection Treatment for Sensible People.”

  
Mike snorts and complies. After all, he will do whatever Will Byers wants him to do.

  
The first brush of Will’s sunscreen-covered hand over his left shoulder sends a shiver down his spine but he is still smiling because of his lame joke and it distracts him enough to not feel overwhelmed again.

  
“You’re so ridiculous, you know that? Sometimes I can’t believe I actually love you.”

  
Will’s hand freezes between his shoulder blades.

  
“You what?!”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked it! comments are very much appreciated!  
> you can also come and say hi on [tumblr](https://paladinscleric.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> xx julie


End file.
